The city forgets that in 1883 Torontonians turned out in record numbers to vote for a Free Public Library. It forgets that in the 1940s, downtown Toronto was plagued with gridlock, making a subway line necessary. The city forgets that, for some, a morning meal program is like a high note on a lead guitar…

The DEPARTMENT OF PUBLICMEMORY‘s job is to remember Toronto’s hidden infrastructure of public services. We collect living memories of public service sites and commemorate them in collaboration with Toronto residents. Our DEPARTMENT marks sites that are thriving, sites that are struggling and sites where services have disappeared due to funding cuts. We create heritage signs, host publicevents and maintain an online memory archive.